How to stop food cravings

I was reading the Easter edition of the Waitrose magazine and I came across a very interesting article about how to stop food cravings.

Follow a low glycemic diet when possible, avoiding sugar and refined carbohydrates. These foods give a sudden sugar high but I the space of at least half an hour they can quickly lead to hunger and and energy dips.

If you are in the midst of a craving, remove yourself from the situation and try to ignore your hunger. You could try going for a walk or calling a friend or even reading a book, to distract yourself from your hunger.

If want sugary snacks such as biscuits or chocolate, try swapping them for nuts, dried fruits or fresh fruits or vegetables such as a handful of tomatoes or raspberries.

Swap unhealthy savoury snacks such as crisps, roasted or salted peanuts for carrot sticks and houmous or olives,

I hope this is a helpful to stopping un healthy cravings!

Good Eggs

This Easter don't just restrict your self to chocolate eggs. Eggs are an alternative to your average toast or cereals at breakfast time. What an amazing amount of goodness is packed in just one egg!
Eggs contain 14 important nutrients such as vitamins and iron.
They contain vitamin B12 which helps to make red blood cells in the body.
There are many different uses for egg such as omelette, scrambled egg, poached and fried fried egg. These are quick and easy and can be made any day for breakfast.

For a boiled egg

Boil and water until bubbling and add in egg. Boil for 6 minutes and serve with buttered toast, salt and pepper

Personally I enjoy and boiled egg in the morning before a busy day!

Breakfast smoothie

I am hoping to try this delicious receipe soon. I first saw it on Jamie Oliver's YouTube channel. It is very refreshing and includes all the essentials for a good breakfast to get you through the day.  It has carbohydrates,  dairy and protein.
Makes 1 pint
1 banana
Handful of porridge oats
2 tablespoons of fat free yoghurt
Handful of nuts
Frozen mago or any other frozen fruit
1, squeezed lime

Blend until the consistency that you  like your smoothie!

Larder essentials

In my eyes here are just a couple of supplies essential in a larder

• Rice
• Pasta
• Tea
• Coffee
• Salt
• Pepper
• Herbs/Spices
• Stock Cubes
• Tins of: tuna, beans, chopped tomatoes, sweetcorn
• Sauces (tomato, oil and vinegar)
• sugar
• flour (plain and self raising)
• dried fruit
• biscuits (sweet and savoury)
• Jam and marmalade
• Marmite

Lemon and poppy seed cake

This is an old-fashioned tea cake - a is a great pudding served with lots of lemon or vanilla ice-cream.

115g unsalted butter (softened)
115g castor sugar
4 large free-range eggs
180g ground almonds
30g poppy seeds
zest and juice of two lemons
125g self-raising flour (sifted)

for the lemon syrup

100g castor sugar
90g lemon juice

for the lemon icing

225g icing sugar
zest and juice of one lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.
Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.
To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. When your cake is almost cool, put it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top. If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the 'drizzle' effect! Give it a helping hand with a spoon if you want.